Jewels | Litsy

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

pick

The author travels all over the world, chasing the (hi)stories of various jewels.

A very well structured book. Each jewel gets its own section, and we pursue it from the ancient times to the modern, and from the jeweler to the mines it was dug up in (the author visits those mines, and often tries mining herself). It‘s fascinating, coherent, and flows really well.

5/5

eol Also, after reading this book, I‘m even more in favor of buying artificial, lab-produced gems—at least no one got hurt, died, or got cheated while digging them up... (edited) 13mo

7 likes1 comment

Purrfectpages

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

#jewel #quotsymarch2019

TK-421

julesG Truth! 5y

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JazzFeathers

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

Not in the Litsy database. This is a book published by the publisher l work for. The author is an opera singer. Her protagonist is an opera siger too.
While in Lipzig for a gig, Jessica Palm duscovers that three years ago a woman with her same name died in the theatre where she works.
She starts to wonder about it.

twohectobooks I would start to wonder too! 😅 6y

33 likes1 comment

triskeleseeker

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

Today, people wear emeralds because they want to wear something that is beautiful but not as brash as diamonds. But two millennia ago, emeralds “said” something different. They were among the most expensive jewels of the Roman and Ptolemaic world, the equivalent of the flashiest diamonds today. But they had another role besides being the ultimate in Ptolemaic bling.

"...the ultimate in Ptolemaic bling." My avocational Egyptologist side loves it!

7 likes1 stack add

triskeleseeker

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

It's been a crazy couple of months. Baby girl is five weeks old, and dissertation defense is tomorrow. Ready to get to all these books I've been stockpiling - so ready!

LeahBergen Best of luck with the defense! 7y

triskeleseeker Thanks @LeahBergen !! 🌷 7y

triskeleseeker I passed!! And now books. And cake. 7y

6 likes3 comments

TheLibrarian

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

Per a request from @RadicalReader here are pictures of my engagement ring. We finally picked out venue and reserved it (man was that stressful) but it was my favorite!!

Lynnsoprano Beautiful! 7y

BekahPat @TheLibrarian Congratulations! 7y

rubyslippersreads 😍💍😍 7y

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RadicalReader @TheLibrarian thank you so much you're so awesome for posting the picture 7y

mcipher So pretty!! Congrats. 🍾 7y

MyNamesParadise Congratulations!! 🍾🎉 7y

Kmmsellers Congratulations! 7y

saresmoore So gorgeous! I remember venue stress. I'm hopeful that the rest of planning will go smoothly and peacefully! 7y

courtney So beautiful! Once the venue is outta the way, everything else just falls into place ☺️ 7y

CherylDeFranceschi Beautiful!Congratulations! 🎉🍾 7y

CrowCAH Congrats! Beautiful ring; I like how it's square, don't see that too often! 7y

LeahBergen Beautiful!!! 💗💗 7y

CouronneDhiver Very nice. All the best! 7y

Laalaleighh Oh my gosh this ring is absolutely stunning! ✨💍✨ 7y

Laalaleighh I wish I could add the ring to my stack 📚 7y

RadicalReader @Laalaleighh right?!!! 7y

RadicalReader @CrowCAH square rings are beautiful 7y

TheLibrarian @Lynnsoprano @BekahPat @rubyslippersreads @mcipher @MyNamesParadise @Kmmsellers @CherylDeFranceschi @CrowCAH @LeahBergen @CouronneDhiver @Laalaleighh Thanks everyone! 7y

TheLibrarian @saresmoore @courtney Thank you! Venue definitely seems the most stressful, especially when your future mother-in-law is involved. 7y

courtney @TheLibrarian uh oh! Hopefully your MIL to-be is chill! My husband and I just booked a bar in a movie theatre for our reception and both our moms were like "odd but cool" and rolled with it (which I was so grateful for!!) enjoy the process!! All the stress is so worth it ?? 7y

TheLibrarian @courtney My soon to be MIL is really nice. She was just worried about the money and doesn't believe in renting a place to have a wedding. And I'm willing to pay a little extra to have most things done for us, like decorating! I'm all about doing less, than I have more time for reading 😂 7y

81 likes21 comments

iread2much

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

pick

This #microhistory of precious gems is very well written and very interesting. While I don't always enjoy the way the author sticks her own narrative into the #history she is writing, I like how she tells stories about all the different gems and minerals. Read this if you like biographies and shinny things. 3.5/5 stars

11 likes2 stack adds

triskeleseeker

Jewels: A Secret History | Victoria Finlay

Do you ever spend several indecisive hours looking at your current stack, trying to figure out what to read next? This happens to me all the time. I'm never in the mood for what I have, don't want to start a new series, or whatever, and I end up buying something new even when I'm trying not to...😬

triskeleseeker (And yes, I realize this is absolutely a first world "problem" !) 8y

bookishkai Always. Or I have the books that I'm saving for the "right" time but I'm so afraid that it's the wrong time that I never actually read them. 8y

CaitlinSiem I absolutely adored The Song of Achilles. Even know the gist of the story, I found this retelling to be so interesting and the ending destroyed me. I just couldn't have prepared myself even though I know what was to come. Please do give it a try at some point even if it's not at the moment. 🙂 8y

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triskeleseeker @bookishkris yes, I am saving a few particular books for some travel in early autumn, but I know I won't need that many pages to get through a trip of only 5 days. Oh the trials of being a book lover 😛 8y

Caryl Alias Grace! 8y

triskeleseeker @CaitlinSiem so glad to hear your glowing review! I absolutely will get to it one of these days...it does fit my current mood but I'm watching HBO's Rome right now so I don't want to mix my ancient civilizations 😛. I promise I will get to it - thank you! 😊 8y

triskeleseeker @Caryl I will get to it, I promise! 😊. My current mood isn't quite there. I feel I need something fairly quick and light because I'll be starting to write chapter 5 of my dissertation on Monday, and my brain apparently can't handle too many things at once. Boo. I'd rather be reading. 8y

Caryl @triskeleseeker - yeah, I wouldn't call Alias Grace light. 😉 Definitely try it later, and good luck on your dissertation work! 8y

triskeleseeker @Caryl - thank you! I'm very much looking forward to finishing the diss so I don't feel I have to ration my mental and emotional energy so much. 8y

Rebekaaah I am exactly the same!! It's terrible 🙈lol 8y

triskeleseeker @Rebekaaah so glad I'm not the only one!! 8y

triskeleseeker @CaitlinSiem finally got to Song of Achilles. Just finished it - so heartbreaking and beautiful. I loved it so much. Best book I‘ve read in a long time. 6y

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